


A Cat in Gloves Catches no Mice

by RedHeaphones1



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, M/M, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Romantic Soulmates, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Truth or Dare, hi im bad at writing, klance, klance is endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-05-24 07:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14950550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedHeaphones1/pseuds/RedHeaphones1
Summary: Your typical soulmark AU, taking place at the castle this time. Keith is an oblivious mess, and this takes place in the earlier seasons (before all the shit goes down). Soulmarks appear at birth and are identical in soulmates, but they can be different colours.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybod- anybody! This is my first ever attempt at writing a fic, so it's probably gonna flop! But whatever. Comment or leave kudos if you want it continued!

Lance had always dreamed of finding his soulmate and spending the rest of their lives together. Since it was something that was nearly unavoidable, he had just assumed that one day, he would bump into someone and figure it out by checking their soulmarks.

Age 7: He wondered if it could be one of the pretty girls in his class. They all had long hair and liked to chat with him, so why not one of them?

Age 11: Perhaps it could be someone from his tennis club? Maybe his soulmate had already noticed? 

Age 15: He had joined the garrison by age 14. Most of his classmates had already found their soulmates, and Lance was getting almost desperate. He had figured out he was bi, but was only out to Pidge and Hunk. Hunk’s soulmark was a roundish-shape, almost like a rock, so there go his chances with Hunk. Strangely enough, Pidge didn’t have a soulmark. She said she didn’t want to commit her life to someone else, so Lance didn’t try with her.

Since arriving at the Castle of Lions, he had given up on that dream. He, Hunk, and Pidge had already checked, and the Alteans had no concept of soulmarks. As attractive as Shiro was, Lance sincerely doubted it was him. That left Keith. They didn’t tend to talk about things like that, so Lance let the topic be.

\---

Lance was in the shower. His fingers grazed over his soulmark - a small blue cat-like shape on his left thigh. He almost hated seeing it. Seeing his one chance at love, and knowing that it was gone. There was probably some beautiful girl or handsome boy waiting out there for him, and he would never talk to them. He would probably never even meet them.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud yell.

“Lance! You’ve spent a whole 40 minutes in there! Hurry up or you’re going to miss out on my speciality - food goo!” Hunk yelled from outside the shower room.  
“Coming! In a minute!” Lance screamed back, and surely enough, he appeared in the kitchen in a matter of minutes. 

“Ah Lance, finally. I thought we’d have to start without you,” said Allura, sitting with an empty plate on her lap, “Pidge has just told me about this fantastic earth game called ‘Dare or Truth’-”  
“It’s ‘Truth or Dare’, princess,” interrupted Pidge, “and I think Lance would be the _perfect_ player for this game.”  
“Oh? Why’s that?” asked Allura innocently.  
“You’ll see.”


	2. Chapter 2

7 rounds in, and Lance was already wasted. Pidge had added in a rule where they had to take a shot every time they were truthed/dared something. If any of his garrison friends were here, they would have laughed at him and called him a lightweight. But dear  **quiznack** , that altean alcohol was strong.

It was Pidge's turn, and she looked over to Hunk, who seemed to be the only sober-ish one there.

"Truth or Dare, Hunk?"

"I'll take Truth." Replied Hunk, filling his shot glass.

"Alright then... Do you drool in your sleep?" Asked Pidge. She had a master plan in this game, but Lance couldn't figure out what it was.

"How would I know the answer to that, Pidge? I mean, I don't think so." Hunk downed the shot in three gulps. The altean alcohol was too strong for even him. He turned to Keith.

"Your turn, Keith," Said Hunk, "Truth or Dare?"

Keith looked over to one side before replying with a muffled "Dare". He was a quiet drunk; the kind that would only speak if spoken to. Well, that was normal Keith too. Lance doubted there was any difference between the two.

"Hmm..." Said Hunk, "Draw us your soulmark."

 

The atmosphere changed, and Lance felt it. What had previously been a friendly, casual atmosphere changed into a more tense one. Lance knew Keith would refuse the dare. However, these were not normal circumstances. Keith was drunk, and he nodded lazily along.

 

"M'kay... Gimme a pen 'n paper..." His words were slightly slurred, as that of a drunk person's.

 

Hunk passed over a pen and some paper, slightly in shock from Keith's agreement. Pidge whispered that he must be **really** drunk to let himself do this.

 

It took a while, but Keith had finished drawing it. Even Lance was curious, as Keith had never shown his soulmark to the team before. Neither had he, but that didn't matter right now. He turned the paper over to show them, and there was Lance's soulmark, in red. Slightly misshapen, but that was from Keith's shaky hands. 

 

Lance's blood ran cold. He gasped slightly, recoiling at the sight of it. There was no way. Absolutely no way. This must be a prank of Pidge's. Lance wasn't going to accept Keith as his soulmate. There must have been some mistake. But how had Keith learnt to draw it perfectly, line-for-line? Unless he... Nope. Lance needed to go.

 

"I- I uh.. need to go." Screamed Lance, way too loud for the vicinity they were all in.

 

"Uh, Lance? Are you OK?" Asked Hunk, confusion written all over his face. He was clearly too drunk to recognize that Keith had drawn Lance's soulmark.

 

It was too late; Lance was already sprinting out the room. He ran and ran, never once slowing down until he had reached the bliss and safety of his room. There, he lay down on his bed, curled into a ball, and spent the rest of the evening alone, interrupted by only his thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seem to be updating this every day but don't expect that in the future

Hunk walked into the kitchen, tired from a late night coding. His mind was still reeling with the events of just over a week ago - Pidge had revealed that she had kissed 2 people (and hated both experiences; kissing just ‘wasn’t for her’, she said), Lance had run off half-way through the night, and Keith, strangely enough, had shown them his soulmark. However, that was due to his high blood alcohol concentrations at the time, and not of his own accord. The next morning, he had denied any memory of the event. Hunk could barely remember most of the night’s events - he couldn’t even remember Keith’s soulmark, and he was kicking himself for that.

 

Halfway through finishing a beautifully-made, mouth-watering batch of green food-goo, the castle’s alarms went off. Hunk stood up and hurried his way to where Allura and the rest of the paladins were, in the main hall.

 

“What’s up, princess? What’s the problem?” Asked Hunk as he briskly walked in.

 

“Oh, it’s really not that big of a deal, but I thought I should call you all in just the same.” Replied Allura, “There have been reports of Galra activity in a nearby galaxy, and we thought we should check it out. However, it will take us a couple days to reach the planet in question as the teleduv is not functional at the moment, and we need the castle’s defences to back us up in case of a fight. We’ll be going over our battle strategy soon, but not now.”

 

Hunk looked around. Pidge was at her battlestation, coding away at what seemed to be a subroutine of some kind. Shiro and Coran were discussing possible battle strategies. Keith was sitting in his chair, looking slightly out of it. It was still early morning, after all. Lance was still in his pyjamas, staying quiet. This was very unlike him, and Hunk wondered if maybe he should intervene in the boy’s problems. However, that was a problem for another time, Hunk decided, and returned to the kitchen to finish his food goo.

 

\---

 

Now that Hunk had finished his absolutely delectable breakfast of food goo, food goo, and more food goo, he decided that now was the time to address that problem.

 

He walked over and knocked at Lance’s door. A moment passed, then he heard Lance’s sigh.

 

“Come in.”

 

Hunk walked in, expecting to find Lance on the floor, playing a level of whatever stupid game he had picked up at the space mall. Instead, Lance was sitting on his bed, staring at the wall, thoroughly engrossed in his thoughts.

 

“Hey Lance? Is there anything bothering you recently? You seem really down.” Hunk started off by getting to the point quickly. There was no point in dilly-dallying with pointless small talk.

 

“Hmm? Oh, no. I’m ok. It’s..uh.. Just my brother Marco’s birthday today!” Lance was trying to sound very upbeat and failing. “And I was just kinda sad that I couldn’t be there to celebrate it. That’s it. Sorry for making you worry.”

 

Hunk very clearly knew that Marco’s birthday was the 24th December, and that it was currently around June in Earth time, but he did not push the subject. If Lance didn’t want to talk about it, then Hunk was sure that he would get out of this funk in a few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo keith's gonna make an explosive appearance in the next one and i cant wait to post it


	4. Chapter 4

Keith yawned as he walked towards the west side of the castle. His towel, white and fluffy, hung around his neck. His bathing suit, a pair of shorts, swished with every step he took.

 

He turned a corner and made his way towards the shower block. The shower block was a beatiful room suited out with 1 extremely large shower room (with 5 large showers) and a seating area, where Keith supposed you were to hang out and talk with friends after having a shower? He didn’t understand it.

 

It was 5:30 in the morning. He always woke up very early to make sure he had the whole shower block to himself. Usually, he, Lance, and Hunk alternated days with the early shower period, but the order had been out of sync recently, with Lance locking himself in in his room. Keith had decided to respect their timetable, even if Mondays and Thursdays were now free for the taking. It was currently Tuesday.

 

Keith walked into the seating area, and lay his towel down. He heard a strange noise from the shower room, almost as if the showers were on. But it couldn’t be…

 

Keith walked into the room and was greeted with a tall, tan, nearly-naked body. Thank God that everyone had pre-decided to wear bathing suits when showering. He went to avert his eyes downwards and saw… No. It couldn’t be. 

 

Approximately a millisecond later, he heard a high-pitched shriek emit from Lance’s mouth. High-pitched yelling came from his mouth, all of it incomprehensible. Keith heard something along the lines of ‘What are you… My day… Invasion of Privacy… Betrayal of Trust…’, but Lance was screaming (and running around like) a headless chicken.

 

As his face slowly reddened to the complexion of a heavily-burnt dad who had forgotten to apply sunscreen on his entire body on a summer vacation, Keith turned and walked straight out of the room, collected his towel, and turned and ran away from the shower block. All without saying a single word.

 

\---

 

Literally about 34 ticks after this had happened to poor Keith, he found Shiro running. Running. They were on a castle hurtling through space at thousands of miles per hour, and yet Shiro still found the will and time to **run** . 

 

Keith bumped into him, and sent them both sprawling to the ground.

 

“Huh? Oh hello, Keith!” said Shiro pleasantly. “How’s your morning so far?”

 

“ _ So far, I’ve walked into a half-naked Lance, discovered who my soulmate is, and even stubbed my toe running away from him, but yes Shiro, I’m doing great! Thanks for asking!” _

 

“Oh… uh… Good.” said Keith, trying to briskly walk away from Shiro. Unfortunately, Shiro trailed him.

 

“Fantastic! Y’know, I really think that with some effort, you and me could start going on bi-daily runs together! 3 laps around the castle, morning and night!”

 

_ “That sounds awful.” _

 

“That sounds great!” said Keith. 

 

He walked into his room. Luckily, Shiro did not follow him in, and instead let him live in peace.

 

Keith settled with his thoughts. After a bit of consideration, he had judged that in fact, Lance WAS his soulmate. Luckily, he would never have to know. Keith had kept secrets from people his whole life.

 

It wouldn’t hurt to keep another.


	5. Chapter 5

_ Beep Beep Beep! _

 

Lance awoke suddenly, mainly because there was a loud ringing in his room.

 

_ Beep Beep Beep! _

 

He realised it was the Castle’s alarm, yet still felt the urge to smother his head in a pillow and go back to sleep.

 

_ Beep Beep Beep! _

 

“ _ Seriously, why do they have to make these alarms so loud? And why do they  _ **_always_ ** _ ring so early in the morning? Can’t the galra ever plan to take over planets at 7 in the  _ **_evening_ ** _? _ ” Lance thought to himself as he dragged himself out of bed and put on his usual clothes.

 

He soon arrived at the main hall of the Castle, where all the others were waiting.

 

“Good.” said Allura as he arrived, “We now have plans to attack the Galra on their way to finish off the planet. Let me explain the plan to you all.”

 

Allura explained: Pidge and Hunk would intercept the nearby Galra starship by hacking in from their battlestations and deciphering all the Galra locks and codes. Shiro would create a distraction by flying his lion and aggravating the starship, soon to be joined by Pidge and Hunk. Lance and Keith would sneak onto the starship, plant explosives, then escape back and join the team in their lions.

 

Lance’s heart sank at the sound of this. Not now. He couldn’t work with Keith right now. Not after he had found out he was his soulmate.

 

Keith’s blood ran cold. If he were to let something slip, and Lance found out they were soulmates, then he would never want to talk to him again. Lance would  **hate** him. Keith didn’t want that. Even though they went face-to-face in almost everything, Keith didn’t actually hate Lance. If Lance treated him a bit better, then perhaps he would even want to hang around him more often.

 

\---

 

Later, late into the nightly hours, Pidge and Hunk found Lance sitting unenthusiastically in the sitting-room, even though he was playing a single-player version of his favourite game,  _ Monsters and Mana _ . They sat down next to him and looked over as Lance put his knees to his chest.

 

“Hey Lance?” Hunk decided to start off with a more passive attempt than last time. “You’ve kinda been down these past few days… Are you absolutely sure that nothing’s the matter? I noticed it started around the day we played Truth or Dare…?”

 

“Oh, nothing. I’m completely fine!” squeaked Lance, clearly not completely fine. He was an awful liar.

 

“Lance. I’ve known you for 8 years. I know when you’re not fine. Tell me, please. It’s not good to keep whatever’s holding you up cooped up in your system.”

 

Lance hesitated, then sighed. Over the years, he’d never been able to withstand Hunk’s simplistic, yet effective method of questioning him until he broke.

 

“Alright, fine…” Lance started, “You know when we were playing Truth of Dare, and we all got really drunk? And then you dared Keith to show his mark, and he did? Well he showed us and it’s- it’s-” 

 

He turned away, tears forming at his eyes. Hunk was confused for a second, but then it cleared. The blurry memory of Keith’s soulmark came into focus. A small red cat-like shape, exactly how Lance’s was shaped. He was stunned into silence for a moment, then realised that Lance almost definitely needed comforting. He turned to Lance, and was about to say something when Lance interrupted him.

 

“He hates me, Hunk! Even if he did know, there’d be no way he’d want to be with me! I spent so long feeling sorry for whoever had my mark on Earth and he just comes and ruins all that!” Lance whisper-screamed, obviously distraught.

 

“Woah, Lance. Calm down.” Hunk was in a state of shock but for Lance’s sake, he had to keep it cool. “I don’t think he hates you. Sure, you two bicker and fight all the time, but that’s just because you’re rivals. Deep down, I don’t think he actually hates you.”

 

“If it’s any help here,” interjected Pidge, “I know for a fact that he doesn’t hate you. He finds your constant need for a challenge slightly irritating, but he doesn’t truly hate you.”

 

Lance sniffed. He looked over to Pidge.

 

“How’d you know that?” He said in a small voice.

 

“Surprisingly enough,” Pidge replied, “Me and Keith are actually quite good friends when no-one else is around.”

 

“Now come on,” said Hunk, “Let’s finish this game and make ourselves an unhealthy dose of food goo?”

 

“Alright. Thank you, guys.” said Lance, putting on a brave face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooh finale's coming soon! but anyway you'll have to give me 2 or 3 days to plan and write it as i am v busy over the next few days.


	6. Chapter 6

“Pidge! Hunk! What’s your status?” Lance’s voice rung out loudly in their earpieces.

 

“Lance. We haven’t even started yet. And stop sounding so formal all of a sudden.” Pidge said over the intercoms, sounding bored.

 

Lance exhaled a sigh. He and Keith had been waiting here for over half an hour, drifting in space in their lions. They were just a couple minutes from where the starships were, but still far enough away to be off of their radars.

 

After a good 10 or 15 minutes, Hunk and Allura announced that they were ready to begin the mission: Get in. Blow up the starship. Run.

 

Pidge and Hunk started tapping away at their keyboards so loudly that you could hear them over the earpieces. Lance considered temporarily muting them, but Keith’s helmet was barely functioning, and he doubted if it would actually keep audio and visual services running the whole mission through. God, how he didn’t want to do this.

 

About 30 seconds in, Shiro and the Castle of Lions shot off to go distract the starship.

 

A couple minutes later, Pidge announced that their radar systems were down temporarily, and that Lance and Keith were good to go.

 

They shot off, side by side, racing in the direction of the starship. Literally racing. At this rate, Lance considered that they wouldn’t be able to stop, and would just crash into the side of the starship. It might work, but the chances were slim.

 

Their lion stopped about 50 metres from the starship, and they jetpacked the rest of the way. Once they reached the surface of the ship, they used a saw to cut through the metal and crept onboard.

 

“We need to find the control room,” whispered Keith, looking around a corner, “Pidge said it should be one of these room to the right.”

 

Lance nodded in reply. As mentioned earlier, he didn’t trust Keith’s helmet’s functionality.

 

They crept along, checking each room. Most of them were empty, or obviously not the control room. They snuck along until they reached the one at the very end of the corridor.  

 

“Perhaps we should’ve checked this one first. I mean, in movies the important room is always at the end of the corridor. It’s common sense, really.” said Lance.

 

Keith shushed him and walked up to the door.

 

“Ready? 3.. 2.. 1!” Lance yelled.

 

They both jumped in, and immediately got the work clearing the room. There were 4 Galra each on the right and left, and 12 in the centre of the room. That added up to 20 enemies. 10 each?

 

Keith ran towards the left, brandishing his sword like a true swordsman (which he was, as he had been training with this sword for months). He effortlessly sliced 2 of the Galra in the stomach in one sweeping blow, knocking them to the ground. He knocked another one out with a foul blow of his sword. The last Galra was not so easily defeated. She pulled out a gun and started shooting him. He winced as the shots hit him, hurting like a paintball at close range. Keith ran at her, strafing to miss her shots. He attacked her, sending her passed out to the ground.

 

Lance stared at Keith for a second, then remembered he was in direct combat as about 30 laser shots spun towards him. He rolled out of the way, and towards the right set of Galra. He tried to dodge all their attacks as he ran towards them, like Keith. Unfortunately, one of their shots had hit his helmet. Hard. Determined not to let Keith show him up, he knocked them all out in the same time as Keith, if not better. By then, Keith had already defeated all the centre Galra. Show-off. There was a strange buzzing in his earpiece. He shook his head and got to work, ignoring it.

 

“Hey Lance? You know that problem with my helmet that stops the sound or sight in my helmet?” asked Keith slowly.

 

Lance’s blood ran cold. Either Keith was deaf or blind, and he couldn’t figure out which was better in the current situation.

 

“Yeah?” replied Lance, hoping that Keith would say that the problem wasn’t happening at this very moment.

 

“That problem seems to be happening at this very moment. I don’t think my coms are working.” said Keith.

 

Shit. The buzzing coming from Lance’s helmet got louder.

 

“Mine’s seem ok. There’s this strange buzzing sound coming from the earpieces, though.” said Lance. “I’ll tell you what’s happening in the coms.”

 

Hopefully,  this buzzing was just that. A buzzing.

 

Lance and Keith rushed towards the control panel, and Lance asked Pidge for instructions. Due to the ever-growing loud buzz in his earpiece, he could barely make out what she was saying.

 

“Click this button… blah blah buzz… Enter this code…. Blah blah buzz…”

 

“Uh, Pidge? Could you speak up? I couldn’t quite make out what you were saying in the last bit.” said Lance, straining his ears in his helmet.

 

“They’re coming in!” yelled Keith, turning his attention to the Galra gudards, “I’ll cover you; You get the controls!”

 

“Alright so… Enter the code ‘HE73FI7FH2’ into the red input box,” said Pidge, clearly yelling, “Then press ‘Activate’. You’ll have 5 minutes before the doors seal themselves. You gotta get out of there before everything blows-”

 

Lance’s earpiece broke. It had exploded, and left a fresh smell of burnt lingering in the helmet. Guess he’d have to finish this without the aid of anyone but Keith. As Keith was getting overwhelmed by the number of guards, Lance entered the code. The machine accepted the code and the lighting of the whole ship turned red. Ominously, it had also dimmed the lights, creating a strange, tense atmosphere. Lance wondered what that meant.

 

He turned and started shooting at the masses of Galra crowding him and Keith. He turned to scream something at Keith and instantly forgot it. Keith looked… amazing, for lack of a better word. He was practically gliding through the enemy, slicing them with his sword. His movement was so fluid and undisturbed; it was like a ballet recital. His hair flowing in the breeze he created from moving around so much, his fierce expression glaring at the Galra. He looked hot.

 

Did Lance just think that? No, no he didn’t, he said to himself, repressing the memory. Or perhaps he would keep it, for a special activity later.

 

All this thinking had kept Lance standing in one spot, looking like a complete fool. What idiot stands up and stays still in a battle field? Lance, that’s for sure. He got pelted with some kind of special zappy ray, shot by a Galra commander, who Keith instantly leapt after, screaming.

 

From his position on the floor, Lance could only see space. They were on the very edge of the ship after all, and the windows were wide open to let the beautiful mass of stars and galaxies decorate the walls of the room. He could see the occasional fighter plane, obviously going after Shiro, who didn’t seem to be a very good distraction, as he and Keith were currently being swarmed by enemies right now. 

 

Lance tried to sit up, but everything spun and he instantly fell back down again. The ray had hit the side of his helmet, right where the earpiece had exploded, so there was a nice big hole right in the side of his helmet, perfectly sized for a zappy ray to come in and knock him out with.

 

After a while, Keith stopped moving around and stood still, panting desperately for air. Lance could only assume that all the monsters had gone. Keith raced over to his side.

 

“Lance! Lance! Are you OK?! Can you hear me?” Keith screamed in his face.

 

“Geez man… No need to be so loud…” Lance joked faintly. There was no covering up his pain this time.

 

Keith started checking the side of his helmet when a robotic, disembodied voice rang out. 

 

“2 MINUTES UNTIL AUTOMATIC SELF-DESTRUCT. SEALING ALL DOORS.”

 

Keith turned and looked at the door, which was currently sealing it’s already-closed doors together. He raced over and started banging on the doors - their only way out. They didn’t budge. He ran around, punching the walls and windows, until his knuckles were sore and nearly bleeding. He gave up, and sat down next to Lance.

 

“Hey.. so we’re gonna die in 2 minutes, right?” Lance asked cautiously.

 

“Yeah, it seems that way.” Keith’s voice sounded defeated, for obvious reasons.

 

“I guess there’s something I should tell you then,” Lance started off slowly, “So.. uh…”

 

“We’re gonna die in less than 2 minutes. We don’t have time for ‘uh’’s.” Keith said sharply. For a second there, Lance had thought he saw a glimmer of hope in Keith’s eyes as he had leaned over him.

 

“Right. So I’m just gonna say it. Keith, you are my soulmate. I noticed a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been acting weird about it since then. I’m really, really sorry about that. The thing is.. I really do like you. I only noticed it recently, like REALLY recently. Literally like 10 minutes ago or something and-” 

 

He was cut off. His incessant babbling was stopped by a kiss. Even though it was unexpected, Lance revelled in the opportunity. He took the time to open his eyes for a second (just to check it actually  _ was  _ Keith, and not some Galra), which had been previously closed during his word-spitting.

 

Keith’s lips pushed onto his, and Lance was all too happy to accept them. He supposed that it was the I-can-do-anything- craze that comes before you die that Keith was experiencing, but Keith felt a little too desperate to be feeling that. And surely he wouldn’t kiss just anyone right?

 

Lance’s heart was beating at 300 miles per hour. He pushed back onto Keith’s lips, tears forming at his eyes. Here he was, with his soulmate that he’d been dreaming for for 17 years, and they were going to die. In 10… 9... 8… seconds.

 

As the robotic voice counted down from 10, he flung his arms around Keith’s body and held 

on tight, hoping that he’d never let go. Keith held tightly onto him, feeling the same thing. 

 

“THREE.”

 

“TWO.”

 

“ONE.”

 

As everything suddenly went dark, Lance shut his eyes and hoped for a quick death. A second passed, and he realised he was not dead. And neither was the person he was holding onto. He opened his eyes and looked around. They were in the mouth of the red lion. She had torn the wall open and dived right in, catching them in her mouth.

 

“Keith?” asked Lance faintly.

 

“We’re done now, Lance. We completed the mission.” whispered Keith back, smiling at him.

 

Lance was about to kiss him again, when his world spun and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you guys ask for it in the comments i could add an epilogue? it'd just explain what happened after


	7. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha this is long overdue.... whoops. i kinda forgot. but luckily for the few of you that read this, im back!!! with an epilogue!! its awful and ive had writers block for weeks so this was bad but.. oh well.
> 
> NOTE: Can we all just pretend that the healing bay has windows to the outside of the castle? just for this fic's sake?

_Beep Beep._

 

_Beep Beep._

 

_Beep- Swooooshhh._

 

The door of the healing pod began to open, and Lance suddenly found himself both completely conscious, and falling forwards at a high speed..

 

“I- Arghhh-!” He yelled, trying (and failing) to grip onto anything he could to prevent his fall. He was unsuccessful.

 

He landed onto the cold, hard floor of the healing pod bay. Due to him being in space, and there being no sun, he had no clue what time it was. He judged it was nighttime, as the harsh bright lights of the bay automatically turned on from roughly 6am in the morning, and turned off at 9pm at night. The only thing that lit the room were the thousands of stars gleaming from outside the windows.

 

Lance looked around, and jumped at the sight of another body. It didn’t seem to be moving. He crawled over to see what it was, and found a sleeping Keith, looking, quite frankly, _adorable._ He moved to push Keith’s hair out of his eyes, and accidentally startled him.

 

Keith opened his eyes slowly, and looked up to Lance. Even though he didn’t physically move, Lance felt something change in his eyes. They looked… at peace.

 

“Lance.” It wasn’t a question. Keith acknowledged he was alive, and back. “I missed you.”

 

“Hey.” Lance felt so happy just to be here, to witness this conversation taking place. “How long was I out? Why are you asleep on the floor here? What time is it?” So many questions came bursting out of Lance.

 

“You’ve only been out for four days, and two of them were to measure your vitals. And it should be about 5:30 in the morning right now, judging by the stars’ position.” Lance had no clue how Keith knew the time just from looking at stars. Hell, sometimes he had trouble deciphering military time-based clocks. “And… uhh.. I was worried. So I stayed with you.”

 

“Ok..” Lance took a moment to process all this. Only four days was good, for someone who nearly died in an explosion. Well, technically he had passed out from shock or something _after_ the explosion had happened, but no one needed to hear that detail of his brave warrior’s story. And Keith had stayed to watch over him? For four whole days? “Uhh… thanks.”

 

An awkward silence appeared in the air, unforseen and unwelcomed. Lance figured he should address the elephant in the room.

 

“Uhh.. you know all that stuff I said before the whole explosion thing happened? Yeah… that  wasn’t…” Lance hesitated. He cleared his throat. “That.. wasn’t a fluke. I still feel that way.”

 

“Lance, I...” Keith looked up into his eyes, unsure of how to properly vocalise his feelings. He looked desperately at Lance, wishing he could just kiss him.

 

And then, surrounded by the stars, he did.


End file.
